Alaskan Odyssey Part Two: Tuesday 6th August 2019
So, we left Ketchikan in beautiful sunshine to meander (if a ship the size of the Royal Princess can "meaner") up the Clarence Strait and progressing between the Islands of the Inside Passage into Stephens Passage towards Juneau arriving at this most unusual state Capital early in the morning of Tuesday. There is no direct road access to Juneau, you have to get there by ship
or by air.
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| Dawn, Stephens Passage |
We had booked an organised shore trip to the Mendenhall Glacier,
followed by a whale-watching boat trip. The Mendenhall Glacier is impressive
but, like most glaciers worldwide, has retreated considerably in recent
years.
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A
beautiful day for it!
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Amazing
patterns of ice
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After the viewing of the glacier we trekked along the path on a circular
route to get us back to our bus for the next step of the tour. While passing a
dense area of trees a number of us noticed a large, black creature moving on the
other side of the vegetation and about three of us in unison said, "Bear!". Guide
Gene told us the bear would likely just continue through the bush and asked us
all to retreat back with him. The bear family, as it turned out to be, had
other ideas and, as we watched, a mother black bear stepped onto the path about
50 metres from us, followed by her two cubs. Mama bear totally ignored us and
carried on the path away from us, but one of the cubs was quite curious about
the strange "bears" on their path and gave us a stare before following
mum (see photo). A short time later, we could see them through the trees and hear mum telling the
cubs off for wanting to climb a tree.
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Probably
about as close as you want to be!
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Our bear encounter was not quite over, though. Gene had got us to
retreat back to a viewing platform behind us to maintain a safe distance. One
of the young bears had other ideas, came back along the path quite close to the
platform to look at us again (Gene was saying "Hey, bear" quietly and had
the bear spray in his hand). The cub then moved away off the path to rejoin the
family who were on their way to pass below the platform to get to the creek for
a drink.
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Close
encounters of the "bear" kind
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Well, after that bit of excitement, we headed back to the bus and off to
the harbour at Auke Bay to board our Whale Watching boat with Gene and skipper,
Tobie as our guides. We headed out into the bay and, with the help of local
knowledge and radio calls from other boats we were able to see a total of five
humpback whales, one on her own and, later, a pod of four including a calf.
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Mother
and calf - the calf is spouting
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The
(almost) classic whale tail shot
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So, after all that excitement, it was back to shore to board the bus
back to the cruise ship and dinner before an evening sail away.
Farewell Juneau - on to Skagway.
